About:
The First Baptist Church was organized by 20 members in Greenwood, Indiana, on July 17, 1839, under the leadership of Pastor Henry H. Hunter, the first of 37 pastors to serve this congregation to date. The members met outdoors until they could raise $500 in pledges to build its first meeting house which was located just west of Madison Avenue on the south side of the road that is now Main Street. It took 8 years to complete. Since there was no baptistery, believers were baptized in the creek behind the church building. That was the first of 4 buildings thus far that have been completed to accommodate the membership and ministry of this church.
In the 1850's, attendance waned until a revival was held in 1858, and membership increased from 7 to over 100. Shortly thereafter, in 1860, just before the start of the Civil War, the church built a one-room brick structure on a plot of land where our current building stands. The women sat on the west side of the aisle; the men on the east side.
The third building was dedicated in 1899, remodeled in 1930 and again in 1938 for the centennial celebration. A Sunday School class annex was added in 1958.
The current building, in the same location, was completed in 1971. At that time, the church bell, from the previous building (weighing 721 pounds) was given to a church in Haiti to call people to worship there. Some beams from the 1899 building were salvaged by a member, Clyde Winchester, and were used to construct a rugged cross which is mounted in the current sanctuary.
